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Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes<\/em><\/p>\n by Mem Fox<\/p>\n illustrated by Helen Oxenbury<\/p>\n Harcourt, 2008.\u00a0 40 pages.<\/p>\n Starred review.<\/p>\n Sonderbooks Stand-out 2009: #4 Picture Books<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.memfox.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.harcourtbooks.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n I saw this book listed on more than one\u00a0end-of-the-year Best of 2008 list.\u00a0 I’ve loved Helen Oxenbury ever since my 20-year-old son was a toddler who memorized the text in her Tom and Pippo books and “read” the books along with me.\u00a0 Mem Fox I discovered later, but have an extra-special fondness for her books, particularly Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild!<\/em>\u00a0 http:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/PictureBooks\/harriet.html<\/a><\/p>\n So I simply had to check this book out.\u00a0 I was completely enchanted.\u00a0 I will definitely be using this book at my very next Mother Goose Time for babies and parents.\u00a0 The book is only a few months old, and already I find myself thinking of it as a classic no parent of a baby should be without.<\/p>\n There was one little baby who was born far away<\/em><\/p>\n And another who was born on the very next day.<\/em><\/p>\n And both of these babies, as everyone knows,<\/em><\/p>\n had ten little fingers<\/em><\/p>\n and ten little toes.<\/em><\/p>\n Mind you, the picture on the page with “had ten little fingers and ten little toes” shows baby hands and feet so precious you just want to eat them up!\u00a0 (No one draws babies so utterly adorably yet lifelike as Helen Oxenbury.)<\/p>\n The book goes on, in the sweet rhyming cadence, to tell of babies from all over the world.<\/p>\n As each set of two new babies is introduced, the earlier babies look on as a kind of adorable chorus.<\/p>\n The final stanza is what clinches this book as such a delightful\u00a0exploration between parent and baby:<\/p>\n But the next baby born was truly divine,<\/em><\/p>\n a sweet little child who was mine, all mine.<\/em><\/p>\n And this little baby, as everyone knows,<\/em><\/p>\n has ten little fingers,<\/em><\/p>\n ten little toes,<\/em><\/p>\n and three little kisses<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 [Here are the earlier babies are laughing in anticipation!]<\/p>\n on the tip of its nose.<\/em><\/p>\n What can I say?\u00a0 I think this is going to get tucked in with the next baby shower gift I give.\u00a0 Absolutely delightful!\u00a0 Go to your library and look at the illustrations, if you don’t believe me!<\/p>\n Buy from Amazon.com<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n Find this review on the main site at:<\/p>\n